AB0242 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FALLS AND FALL RISK MEDICATION IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
Authors: K. Sakurai, N. Yajima, R. Yanai
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2022)

Background Falls are a serious event that can lead to disability and death. The use of hypnotics, anxiolytics, and antidepressants has been reported drugs associated with higher risk of falls. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a high risk of falls, which is an important issue because it can lead to fractures. Patients with RA have a higher incidence of sleep disorders, depression, and anxiety disorders. They are likely to be prescribed fall risk medications. Objectives We conducted a retrospective study of the incidence of falls in patients with RA, who are more prone to fractures and falls, using fall risk medications, especially hypnotics and anxiolytics, which aimed to determine the relationship between falls and fall risk medications in patients with RA. Methods This study is a retrospective cohort study conducted in Showa University Hospital between December 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. We included of RA patients who visited the outpatient and fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) /European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification 2010 criteria. The main exposure was the fall risk medication. The fall risk medication group was defined as RA patients who were prescribed fall risk medication (sedative/hypnotic, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytic (benzodiazepines) drugs) for all the observational period. The comparison group was defined as RA patients who had never been prescribed any fall risk medications. Outcome measure was the prevalence of fall incidents in the past one year, obtained by using questionnaires to patients. Logistic regression analysis was performed to investigated the relationship between the prevalence of fall incidents and the use of fall-risk medications. The co-variables we selected were as follows: age, sex, stroke, dementia, diabetes and osteoarthritis as covariates. Results We obtained data from 331 patients, of which 303 were included in the analysis. Among the 303 patients, the median age was 67 years (56-75), and 78.5% were women. Of the 303 patients, 45 patients used fall risk medication and 69 patients experienced at least one fall in a year. Of the 45 patients who used fall risk medication, 18 patients experienced at least one fall in a year. Of the 69 patients who experienced falls, 30 patients experienced twice or more falls in a year. Of the 18 patients who used fall risk medication and experienced falls, 9 patients experienced twice or more falls. 4 patients were admitted to the hospital as result of falls, 2 patients used fall risk medication. These results are shown as percentages in Figure 1. The group of fall risk medication was significantly higher than using non fall risk medication. (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.31, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.14-4.68, p=0.02). Figure 1. Conclusion Use of fall risk medications may have increased falls for patients with RA. Acknowledgements Cooperation on data collection: Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Showa University School of Medicine; Yusuke Miwa, Takeo Isozaki, Kuninobu Wakabayashi, Ryo Takahashi, Sakiko Isojima, Hidekazu Furuya, Nao Ogro, Sho Ishii, Yoko Miura, Mika Hatano, Shinichiro Nishimi, Airi Nishimi, Tomoki Hayashi, Yumeko Taniguchi Disclosure of Interests None declared